Gratitude and its Correlate:An Empirical Study

Gratitude is the positive emotion one feels when another person has intentionally given, or attempted to give, one something of value. Increasing gratefulness through gratefulness inducing exercises has found to improve the subjective well being of the individual. Yet, the impact of dispositional gratitude on specific domains such as health behaviour is yet to be assessed. In the present study the extent to which dispositional gratefulness predicts self-efficacy for exercise and eating habits is examined. Participants (n=90) were volunteer students of graduate and post- graduate courses of University of Delhi. They completed measures of dispositional gratitude, and measures of self- efficacy for exercise and eating habits. These measures include Gratitude Resentment and Appreciation Test (GRAT), Exercise Confidence Survey and Eating Habits Confidence Survey (ECHS). Dispositional gratitude was found to be a better predictor for self efficacy for eating habits and mild predictor for self efficacy for exercise. Among the three sub scales of the Gratitude Resentment and Appreciation Test (GRAT), the simple appreciation subscale was the best predictor for self efficacy for eating habits. Lack of sense of deprivation mildly predicts the exercise behaviour.